Amy Purdy to perform solo routine during Paralympics Opening Ceremonies on Sept. 7
The brave and courageous journey of Amy Purdy continues with a giant step onto the world stage Wednesday as cameras from across the globe focus on her opening routine at Maracana Stadium for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Amy was born and raised in Las Vegas. At age 19, she was given a 2 percent chance of living after going into septic shock from bacterial meningitis. Her legs had to be amputated below the knees, she lost her kidneys, and her spleen was removed. Amazingly, she survived, and two years later the former Las Vegas hotel massage therapist received a kidney transplant from her father.
Ever since meeting Amy and interviewing her, I have marveled at her good spirits, tenacity, guts and determination to succeed. Seven months after receiving her leg prosthetics, Amy began snowboarding and within a year of her legs being amputated finished third in a snowboarding competition at Mammoth Mountain.
Amy is now newly married and living in Colorado with husband Daniel Gale, who was her partner on CBS’ THE AMAZING RACE in 2012, and they celebrated their first anniversary Monday. Amy competed on Season 18 of ABC’s DANCING WITH THE STARS paired with five-time champion and former Las Vegas performing arts student Derek Hough.
Amy was the first double amputee to appear on the show, and on her eighth dance, the Argentine tango, they scored 40 out of 40 despite her back injury. Amy finished the season as runner-up to Olympic ice-dancing gold medalist Meryl Davis.
Amy is in Rio for final rehearsals before Wednesday’s Opening Ceremonies to be televised here on NBC Sports. I spoke with Amy by phone:
“I am honored and filled with pride about dancing in the opening ceremony,” Amy told me. “Having won a bronze medal for Team USA in the 2014 Winter Olympics snowboarding in Sochi, Russia, it’s really interesting to be back as a non-competitor.
“I have been here for a month rehearsing. My choreographer, Jessica Bellflower, is an incredible dance coach from Colorado. It’s 4 minutes, and that’s a long time because it’s a solo dance, just me for 4 minutes. On DANCING WITH THE STARS, we did at the most a minute and a half dance. So memorizing this and trying to perfect all of this is way more challenging and time-consuming.
“I dance to the track of a symphony orchestra that will fill the stadium on opening night. The music is customized for this dance. It is just incredible and specifically for this dance. I’m not allowed yet to talk about my clothing, but they found this Israeli designer, a fashion designer who uses innovation and technology in her designs.
“It’s amazing, incredible clothing, innovative clothing, and she custom made this dress for me. We can’t yet talk about it, but the fact that they looked around the world for the perfect designer, there are just multiple things about this performance that makes it so unique and really empowering and special.”
The Paralympics that run until the Sept. 18 closing ceremony takes place in the same facilities as the recent Olympics. Amy continued:
“When we came down a month ago, we practiced in the Maracana Stadium where we were watching everybody else in their Opening Ceremonies. This week, we’re back in the stadium, so it’s in the exact same stadium as the Olympic ceremonies. It was cool; I was starry-eyed. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, in one month, I’m going to be there, by myself, in the middle of that stadium dancing.’ It’s surreal.
“This dance, it’s interesting because, the whole Paralympics, it’s really about the human spirit mixed with and in conjunction with technology. There are all these incredible athletes, and they have amazing wheelchairs or prosthetic legs that allow them to do the sports they’re doing. This dance has the same theme. It’s the human spirit vs. technology. You’ll know what I’m saying when you watch it.”
I had to ask Amy if the people of Rio had forgiven our Team USA swimmers now that they are back home. She told me:
“I talked with our guide who drives us back and forth to practice, and she said, because I asked her the same question, ‘What are Brazilians thinking of the Americans? How we came down here and made them look bad to the rest of the world?’
“And she said, ‘Oh, you know, we’ve moved on.’ I thought, ‘Oh gosh, that’s great. … I don’t agree, obviously, with Ryan Lochte and what happened there, but, down here it’s not even the talk at all. People have gotten over it and moved on.
“Everybody down here feels grateful, the Opening Ceremonies were great, the games were great, everybody’s breathing a sigh of fresh air that things went really well, and that’s what they’re focusing on.”
I asked Amy to explain the different events between the Olympics and Paralympics: “Some of the events are the same or similar, track and field and basketball, except there’s wheelchair basketball. … Basketball is one of the biggest, longest-running sport leagues in the Paralympics. There’s kayaking and rowing, so very similar sports, but then other sports are different.
“Some people will group Paralympics with Special Olympics, which is quite different. Special Olympics is all cognitive, Paralympics is physical disability, but, Paralympics is run by the Olympic Committee, whereas the Special Olympics are a completely different organization.”
Amy, who wrote the bestselling memoir “On My Own Two Feet: From Losing My Legs to Learning the Dance of Life,” will remain in Rio after the Opening Ceremonies as NBC’s official sports correspondent for the Paralympics through Sept. 18.
